DF 65 Series 3 Race 5 Monday 31 Aug
Report by Adrian Wallis DF65 CC
A bright and breezy day at the lake today with a mainly Westerly breeze of about 15 – 20 kts with some interesting gusts combined with short shifts to keep everyone on their toes. A course consisting of a triangle followed by an upwind downwind loop (sausage) was laid which required a few adjustments as the morning went on to provide better upwind legs. A good turnout of 15 boats saw most skippers opting for their A rigs apart from Chris Durant (91) who opted for a smaller B rig. This looked like a strong decision as the B rig boat led the fleet into the first mark only to be stymied by electrical problems. Other gremlin victims today included Andy Smith (37), Chris Foreman (161) and Neal Baxter(62). Racing was close throughout the fleet with boats changing places right up to the finish line and no leads were unassailable. Alec Powell(68) dominated the score card winning 5 races, Adrian Wallis (81) won 3 and Andy Smith (37) won one. A measure of the unpredictability of the wind is that at one point there were two A+ (largest) rigs, a bunch of A rigs and two smaller B rigs on the start line and each competitive at different times on the course. Barry Grubb(48), Chris Foreman(161) both managed second places as did David Jackson (610) who was looking particularly fast at times.
